Hundreds of construction workers today protested at a site in Melbourne over an alleged assault on two CFMMEU officials that has attracted the interest of the ABCC.
The ABCC is investigating allegations that the CFMMEU pressured more than 100 NSW sub-contractors into signing up to a new three-year pattern agreement providing 5% annual pay rises and fixed rostered days off.
A CFMMEU official who had already clocked almost $40,000 in penalties for entry breaches has today landed a $10,000 personal payment order for entering a site to exercise an OHS right, just a month after surrendering his permit.
An AMWU organiser has been fined $12,000 for threatening to blockade a building site and generate "bad PR" if the project refused to engage union members.
In rejecting an individual's claim that an ABCC notice to attend an examination was invalid as it did not enable her to decide whether she needed to answer all of its questions, the Federal Court has also contradicted the agency's position on the level of detail it must provide.
The ABCC, in opposing entry permits for CFMMEU maritime division leaders, is relying on the view that they fall within its jurisdiction because they are officials of a "building association".
The NSW MBA has warned its members against bargaining with the CFMMEU construction and general division's State branch on a proposed enterprise agreement that is says is not compliant with the national construction code.
The ABCC is pressing ahead with prosecutions against the CFMMEU, three officials and 44 individual workers over alleged industrial action last year on a Perth airport rail link project.
The CFMMEU's construction division says senior NSW officials at the centre of a new ABCC court action have denied alleged threatening conduct, such as warning a crane company to "agree with everything" in a deal as "you don't want your blokes offsite, equipment damaged, cranes wrecked".
